Old Loves
by argetangel
Summary: How the Akadou gang  can't  come to terms with Yankumi's mysterious longlost love.
1. Yankumi's Mystery Man

**Chapter 1: Yankumi's Mystery Man**

**1. Yankumi's Mystery Man**

It is Kamiya who first spots them outside the convenience store that is his part-time job – Yankumi and a guy. He rubs his eyes for all of two seconds to convince himself he isn't hallucinating, and they are gone.

Two hours later, when his shift ends, he runs the entire five blocks to Kuma's ramen shop, where he is supposed to meet the old Akadou gang.

Gasping, "Yankumi…!"

Ren and Yamato stare at him, bemused.

Kamiya has his hands braced against the wooden table, attempting to catch his breath and collect his thoughts, when Kengo bursts through the doors, breathless and wheezing the same incoherent message of "Yankumi…!"

Ren rolls his eyes, handing Kamiya and Kengo each a glass of iced water.

Kuraki and Ichimura stroll into the store just as Kamiya recovers, and everyone is present to hear the strangely familiar words.

"Yankumi – with a guy! An ikemen!"

* * *

><p>Yamato is the first to voice it: "Déjà vu?"<p>

Ren laughs in apparent comprehension. "Kumai-san, how many of Yankumi's ex-students are ikemen?"

Kuma chuckles, "Most of them, actually, now that I think about it. Let's see, Akadou had you guys, Kurogin had Odagiri, Yabuki, Tsuchiyama, and Takeda, I think. Shirokin had Shin, Uchi, Noda and of course," he preened, "me."

Kuraki snickers, patting Kamiya on the back. "There you have it, another Odagiri Ryu."

Kamiya looks uncertain, but accepts the conclusion without argument (less scarring than the thought of Yankumi actually being in a romantic relationship).

"That's not it!" Kengo interrupts, having finally regained the ability to speak coherently. "What sort of student, former or not, puts his hand around his teacher's waist and whispers intimately to her?"

"EHHHHH?"

* * *

><p>"Alright, calm down, all of you! You too, Teruo! You've been pacing the same spot for the last ten minutes! Why can't Yamaguchi-sensei get a boyfriend anyway? Or even a husband?" Ami glares at the men in the small shop, a little annoyed at them on Yankumi's behalf. Honestly! No woman wants to be thought of as unfeminine, even one as unorthodox as Yankumi.<p>

"But…" Kuma mumbles, reluctantly perceiving the logic of his wife's argument, but feeling all sorts of weird at the image of Yankumi engaging in PDA.

"Ne, Ami-san, Yankumi comes here regularly, right? Does she ever bring guys here, apart from Odagiri that last time? Or does she ever talk about having a boyfriend?"

Yamato's questions set off a spark, and Kuma's head jerks in sudden realization. "Shinohara! Or maybe Kujo! At least those were the only two ikemen she ever seemed interested in romantically. Shinohara's okay, I guess." He mumbles the last sentence softly, grudgingly.

"ARGHHH! I can't take it with all the possibilities anymore! The images in my mind are getting more and more disturbing!" Before anybody can stop him, Ren whips out his phone and dials Yankumi's cell, putting it on speaker. Everyone freezes, tension mounting as Ren's wild imagination begin to grip them all.

The phone connection begins to ring.

Once, twice, three times.

"Hello?"

In the eerie silence that pervades the ramen shop, it is obvious that the person who has answered is distinctly male.

"Hello? Who is this? Oi, Yankumi, do you always get prank calls?"

"Huh? Whoizzit? Gimme the phone… Kazama? Whaddya want?"

_beep._

Kuma, quietly, disbelievingly: "Oh. My. God."

And all hell breaks loose.

* * *

><p>"OHMYGOD DID YOU FREAKING HEAR THAT?"<p>

"HE ANSWERED HER PHONE!"

"AND THEY SOUNDED BREATHLESS!"

"OHMYGOD I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT!"

"YANKUMI…! SLE-…SLEEP-! I CAN'T EVEN SAY IT!"

"…he called her Yankumi…"

All heads turn to Yamato, who looks contemplative.

"What're you talking about? And shouldn't you be more freaked out?"

Yamato stares coolly at the stunned faces surrounding him. "He called her Yankumi," he repeats, ignoring the second question. "Which means he is or was her student."

It is a loaded statement that had two possibilities.

Kuma starts ticking suspects off the virtual list. "It's definitely not Odagiri; it isn't Shinohara or Kujo either."

Yamato and Ren exchange glances. _Not Tetsu or Minoru. Not any of the Oedo-gumi._

Ami sinks into an empty seat, brow furrowed. "His voice sounded strangely familiar… but I have no idea where've heard it before. Did it sound familiar to you, Teruo?"

"Saa, I have no idea."

"By the way, Ren, your phone's ringing."

Ren panics, fumbling with his phone. "It's Yankumi! What am I supposed to do?" He tosses the phone to Yamato, "you answer it!"

Yamato chucks it to Rikiya, who deftly catches it out of sheer reflex. "No thanks."

The game of Pass-the-Phone goes on for a good two minutes, before another phone started ringing and they realized that Ren's phone had stopped its ringing for a while.

"Kumai's Ramen Store. This is Ami, how may I help you?"

"..."

"Yamaguchi-sensei? Eh? Yeah, they're all here, but I'm not so sure if they're alright."

"…"

"Um, okay then, I'll see you."

_click._

"Yamaguchi-sensei's coming here."

**AN:**So, I was just rewatching the live action movie, and I just really really missed seeing a certain someone in there. Someone whose presence I think would've made for all sorts of interesting scenarios, moreso than Ryu. Shan't say who, because some people don't like spoilers, although I think this mystery man is fairly obvious, haha. This was a completely random thing, but I pretty much know where I want this story to go, so hopefully I'll update soon (:


	2. Yankumi's Interrogation

**2. Yankumi's Interrogation**

**AN:**What do you know! Less than a week – that's a record on its own, never mind the fact that I'm still in the middle of exams (Physics paper today) and my grandmother passed away just last week D: But sad stuff and whining aside, this should be a fairly short piece, I think. Probably three to five chapters maximum, depending on what sort of inspiration strikes. I should probably apologize in advance for the horrible dialogue – I hate writing dialogue and/because I kind of suck at it. But because I'm imagining the entire story playing out drama-style, dialogue is kinda necessary. Anyway, R&R (Read and Review, not Read and Run! It's not a must to review if you read and don't like my fic, but I absolutely hate it when people put my fic on favs or alerts but don't bother to review.) And thanks to those who _did_ review :D

Aaand maybe a little fanservice in the increased tension/potential romance between Yankumi and other student :P (This is why you should review!) Before, of course, (not-so mysterious) Mystery Man is revealed.

* * *

><p>"Kazama, are you alright?" Yankumi crashes through Kuma's doors without preamble, hair loose and glasses missing, only to find seven stunned and somewhat horrified faces staring at her.<p>

"Uh… yeah, I'm fine… I think…" Ren mumbles, still recovering from the shock of Yamato's deductions.

"Are you sure?" she frowns, bringing her face up close to Ren's. Tilting Ren's face upwards to face her, she scrutinizes him, "You're not involved in some nasty shit again, are you?"

Ren twitches, his face flushing at her close proximity. "Of course not! Once and for all, I have a proper job," he blusters, "and it's not as an escort!"

Yankumi withdraws her face, "Ah, that's good," she remarks brightly, forgetting her earlier anxiety. "What about you guys, anything new?"

"Uh, no, we're good…"

"We're fine, yeah…"

It's no wonder that their vague and uneasy replies set Yankumi's trouble radar on alert; she peers at each of them suspiciously, willing them to crack.

Honjo and Kamiya fidget.

Ichimura's gaze shifts side to side nervously.

Yamato bit his lip.

It is Kuraki who breaks with what sounds like an "Eep!"

"Kuraki, what's going on?" Her voice drops into a lower register that is all the more forbidding in its softness.

"I… We… guy… call… sleep… you… scared…" Kuraki is terrified, and knowing that Yankumi is yakuza isn't helping one bit.

The entrance to Kuma's ramen store swings open, and Kuraki turns his desperate gaze towards the male customer that is his savior. Surely Yankumi would drop the yakuza act around katagi?

"Yo, Yankumi, so this is where you were!"

* * *

><p>"…Yabuki?"<p>

Hayato grins, two fingers flashing in his signature peace sign. "Yo, Kuma-san, long time no see!" He glances around the shop, "This place hasn't changed a bit!"

"Yabuki!" Yankumi jerks up, forgetting momentarily about her interrogation. Grinning in surprised delight, she reaches up to ruffle his hair. "You haven't changed one bit!"

"Oi, oi, Yankumi, I know you like touching my wonderful hair and all, but don't mess it up!"

As Yankumi fawns over Hayato, the Akadou gang holds a whispered conversation regarding their strange circumstances.

"Is that the guy? 'This is where you went' sounds awfully like they were together before this…"

"Yeah, and he's calling her Yankumi too…"

"And she likes touching his hair…? I'm getting chills just from thinking about it!"

"Kuraki, what do you think?"

"That Yankumi is fucking scary, I don't want to know anything, and we should get out of here ASAP."

"…"

"No, it's not Yabuki," without anyone noticing, Kuma has joined the conversation – _is sneaking up on people the lesson everyone learns from Yankumi?_ – "the voice was different".

Ami comes up behind her husband, expression contemplative. "I don't know, the more I think about it, the more that voice seems to ring a bell. Do you really not recall it, Teruo?"

"I don't know… now that you've mentioned it, I think I may have heard that voice before. But what I'm sure of is that it's definitely not Yabuki."

"…what's not Yabuki?"

The huddled group looks up to see Yankumi and Hayato peering at them, one curiously and the other suspiciously.

"Uh…"

* * *

><p>They are seated in a row, Kuma included. Hayato lounges at a table nearby, simultaneously interested and grateful that he isn't the one at the end of that piercing glare. Five years since graduation, and Yankumi's edge hasn't dulled one bit. Freaking scary woman, that.<p>

"Alright, I know all of you are keeping something from me. Something which apparently seems to involve both me and Yabuki. Whatever it is, _spill_."

They are silent, all seven gazing intently at the stained wood of the table like it is the most fascinating piece of work they have ever seen.

Ami is the one who eventually speaks up, causing the boys to stare at her in awe and slight shame. "Actually, Yamaguchi-sensei, when Ren-kun called you earlier, someone else answered your phone…" she pauses, waiting for Yankumi to fill in the blank.

Yankumi's face remains uncomprehending. Ami heaves an internal sigh, surely cluelessness ought to have a limit.

"…A man."

None of them has ever seen Yankumi's face so red before, and given that Yankumi often has cause to be embarrassed, it stands to reason that this shameful secret of hers is pretty damn big.

The Akadou gang exchanges glances. Should they question her? Under normal circumstances, they would've pestered her to no end, but having just been on the receiving end of her yakuza-mode, they aren't so sure. That conundrum, however, is abruptly taken from their hands.

Hayato, either showing a huge reserve of courage or a remarkable lack of self-preservation, drapes himself over Yankumi's back, and breathes into her ear a question everyone wanted to know the answer to.

"So, who is it?"

* * *

><p>"Uh…"<p>

It is now Yankumi's turn to squirm and hedge; unlike previous cross-examinations about her love life, there is no school bell to save her. But…

_Brrring!_

_Brrring!_

"Oh, look, it's the phone, I have to answer the phone!"

Hayato leans his full body weight on her. "Sit. It's not your phone to answer."

_Brrring!_

Ami hurries to the ringing phone. "Kumai's Ramen Store. This is Ami, how may I help you?"

"…"

"Oh yes, she's here."

"…"

"Yes, that Ami. You remember me after all these years?"

"…"

"He'll be glad to see you too."

"…"

"Alright then, we'll be awaiting your arrival."

_click._

Ami turns to the others, who are still trying to stare Yankumi down.

"I know who it is."


	3. Yankumi's Ojou-Glare

3. Yankumi's Ojou-Glare

**I'm so sorry this took so long; this fic, strangely enough, was **_**not **_**on my harddrive, so I had no old material to work with and I had to retrieve the fic from ffnet itself. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to finish this, but I was looking through my fic archives and started rereading my old stuff, so I figured I'd tie up whatever ends I could.**

**Also, in the midst of writing this chapter, I realized the original tense I wrote it didn't quite work for this chapter, so I went back and changed everything to present tense (this is for those of you who might be wondering if there's something different).**

* * *

><p>"…Well? Who is it?"<p>

Eight pairs of eyes look at Ami expectantly; one usually bespectacled gaze is especially panicked and accompanied by wild hand gesturing.

Ami laughs, amusement crinkling the corners of her eyes. "I don't think Yamaguchi-sensei wants me to say…"

Yankumi releases a very audible sigh of relief.

"…so why don't you ask her yourself?"

* * *

><p>The Ojou-glare, Yankumi reflects, seems to have much less impact on females than males. Ami is still her cheery (and thankfully tight-lipped) self.<p>

On the upside, the Ojou-glare is doing wonders in keeping at bay the boys she has the misfortune to call students (and Kuma, who is looking decidedly put out at his wife's lack of cooperation).

It is an odd sort of impasse; everyone knows she is cornered, but damn if she isn't going to make someone pay.

As her aura darkens and her irritation surfaces, the survival instinct of the group comes to the fore and they start giving her a wider berth.

Hayato's weight, however, remains heavy on her shoulders, an insistent pressure accompanying his cajoling voice.

That boy has never learnt how to sense danger; then and now, he has always rushed headlong into trouble.

(Curiosity killed the cat.)

* * *

><p>The Akado gang inch as close to each other as possible without leaving their seats. Strength in numbers, and all that.<p>

"Oh hell, the dragon has awakened." Yamato murmurs.

"Is there a back exit? Yankumi's blocking the entrance."

"Where's Kuma? We need an adult here!"

"Don't make sudden movements, but be prepared to run."

"Oh God I can't believe that guy is still hanging on the dragon's back."

"He's going to get roasted."

* * *

><p>"Why so secretive? Is it a scandalous affair? A student? Oh my God. Is it Ryu? There's something going on between you two, right? Him becoming a teacher and all… I knew there was something more going on!"<p>

_Silence_. (There is a flurry of whispers in the background, but Hayato ignores it in his single-minded pursuit of the truth.)

"Silence means consent, y'know. Is it really Ryu? I'm going to kill that guy – he hasn't told me anything!"

"_Yabuki_."

Strong fingers encircle his wrist.

A belated sense of doom.

_Oh crap._

* * *

><p>"Yamaguchi-sensei, please be more aware of your public behavior and your reputation! And boys, respect your sensei's privacy!"<p>

Ami, battle-hardened mother of a child in his terrible twos, saves the day. Yankumi even looks a little shamefaced, a look none of them have seen on her before. Kuma stares at his wife with increased awe and respect.

Ami continues; her audience is already paying rapt attention. "Yamaguchi-sensei, I understand if you wish to keep your private affairs – well, private. But I personally think it would be best to tell them; it's not something you can keep hidden forever, especially given your degree of involvement with your students. Wouldn't it be better to tell them yourself than to have them pry on their own? Because they will pry, no matter how you threaten them."

Yankumi sees the logic in Ami's argument, but is still not quite willing to concede defeat. She glares at the boys, taking satisfaction in the way each one flinches when they meet her gaze. "I don't think they will be prying any time soon."

Ami goes for the death blow: "That may be so, but you should know… he's on his way here now."

* * *

><p><em>What happened to that sweet, simple girl from high school?<em> Yankumi muses bitterly, the sulking of a person who knows when she is thoroughly beaten.

More importantly, how is she going to tell them? _What_ is she going to tell them? This is, bar none, the most awkward situation she has been in her entire life. That includes being caught hiding behind Kuma by Kyoto-sensei.

She doesn't have much time; he's on his way (and damn if the thought doesn't simultaneously fill her with joy and dread). Best to pretend it isn't a big deal.

(She doesn't realize she has already made it an irreversibly big deal.)

* * *

><p>"It's… it's not a big deal. You guys… you guys don't even know him, actually." Her face flushes and her voice is unnaturally high, even though it's <em>not<em> a lie – only Kuma really knows him, even Ami only knows him in passing.

"He's… he's an old acquaintance! An old acquaintance!" She stumbles triumphantly upon what she thinks is the perfect ambiguous statement, not realizing that she is just opening herself up to more questions by not being specific. (Not realizing things is a very large part of Yankumi's social interactions.)

"Then why all the secrecy?" Hayato and Ren are oddly in sync, despite never having met before.

"You… surprised me!"

"Wait, I'm confused. So are you _together_ with this guy?"

"Uh…"

(That's a yes.)

The entrance to the shop swings open, and Kuma automatically shouts "Irrashaimase!".

Only he stops at _irrashai_, because he recognizes the person, and that person is holding Yankumi's glasses.

* * *

><p><strong>Actually, this was supposed to be the last chapter, but I couldn't quite add the last part in here for various reasons (because anticlimacticI love cliffhangers/I haven't written that last bit yet). But the next chapter should be the last, though heaven knows when that will get written. The writing of this chapter was totally a single sitting, spur of the moment thing (I couldn't sleep and started looking through old fics).**


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